Spring Break

When Students` Thoughts Turn To ...

March 19, 1992|By Bill Dahl.

Wet T-shirt contests and drunken teenagers retching as far as the eye can see must mean that it`s spring break time once again.

Thousands of college kids embark annually for a little pre-summer fun in the sun up and down the Florida and California coasts, and the enduring tradition has served Hollywood`s B-movie colony swimmingly.

Three years later, the action shifted to the West Coast for ``Palm Springs Weekend.`` You can count the budding TV stars as they cavort in the sand: perky Connie Stevens, future ``Girl From U.N.C.L.E.`` Stefanie Powers and tough guy Robert Conrad are among the revelers.

Even Elvis Presley made a spring trek to the Sunshine State in ``Girl Happy`` (1965). With his sex-starved trio in tow, Elvis is hired by a tough nightclub owner to keep a protective eye on his nubile daughter (Shelley Fabares) between sets. Old Swivel Hips croons ``Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce`` and the unforgettable ``Do the Clam`` when he isn`t spying on his charge.

Spring break movies have been multiplying like blankets on the scorching sand over the last decade, and somewhere down the line, the wholesome image of the idiom faded noticeably.

Not only did director Sean Cunningham foist the original ``Friday the 13th`` upon an unsuspecting public, he`s also responsible for ``Spring Break,`` a typical 1983 feature focusing on a couple of college lads journeying to sunny Ft. Lauderdale, where they encounter gorgeous girls and have lots of raucous fun.

A couple of swinging frat boys (including a pre-``Bull Durham`` Tim Robbins) and a freshman nerd escape to Palm Springs for some non-stop partying in ``Fraternity Vacation`` (1985), and the usual romantic rivalries ensue. John Vernon plays the local police chief with the same intimidating bluster that he displayed as Dean Wormer in ``Animal House,`` and perennial sexpot Britt Ekland cameos as a waitress (blink and you`ll miss her).

A herd of New Jersey high schoolers (including Elvis clone Michael St. Gerard) waits until ``Senior Week`` (1988) to converge on sunny Daytona Beach, but the formula remains the same. Embarrassing racial stereotypes mingle with the customary brainy dork and eternally famished fat kid, and there`s a shrewish schoolteacher that could give the bride of Frankenstein competition for sheer grotesqueness.

In a desperate search for his endangered ``ultimate fantasy hotbody,`` a squeaky-clean UCLA undergrad and a cute, resourceful private eye comb all the spring break hotspots (some of which we never really see-extensive location shooting was apparently beyond this 1990 would-be actioner`s budget) before finally hitting ``Lauderdale-Where Life`s a Beach.`` There`s plenty of time, though, to insert topless babes, oil-wrestling and bad rock music.

Why producer Allan Carr thought it necessary to remake ``Where the Boys Are`` in 1984 is a mystery, but his updated characters certainly epitomize the contemporary spring break flick trend: silly, shallow and sex-crazed. Lisa Hartman and Lorna Luft are among a quartet of Penmore College coeds who drive to Ft. Lauderdale with more than a tan on their minds.

These yearly soirees aren`t all raving beauties and rampant beer-swilling. In ``Welcome to Spring Break`` (1989), a college quarterback tries to recover from a tough bowl game defeat by hitting sunny Manatee Beach with his horny buddy. Instead, he encounters a killer biker who`s systematically eliminating sinful dudes and dudettes. The always reliable John Saxon co-stars as an iron-jawed cop with a great deal to hide.